Category: Listening Club

France has always been a hotbed for highly influential composers that turn the tides of Western music’s evolution, and perhaps this is most evident in the Neoclassical era. We’ve already looked at several early-20th century reactions against heavy-handed German Romanticism. In France, this reaction was the beginning of an artistic movement, led in large part … Continue reading Neoclassicism in France

There is more to say about Russia, and I’ll get there, but to give our ears some contrast, I will move to other parts of Europe during the interwar period. For today, we will discuss Germany, (formerly) Czechoslovakia, and Spain, and next time, France will get an article all its own. In Germany, Paul Hindemith … Continue reading Neoclassicism: Martinů, De Falla and Hindemith

As we delve further into the Neoclassical era of music, you’ll notice a distinctly large Russian representation, and this is in part because of the censorship imposed upon artists and musicians in Russia during the interwar and postwar period. Composers in 20th-century Russia always lived with a looming, watchful government eye over their work, as … Continue reading Neoclassical Era: Prokofiev

Last week we discussed the daring and outlandish twelve-tone system, which challenged audiences more than ever before to find the meaning behind the sounds in music. Meanwhile, on the other side of the spectrum, the Romantic period had reached a point of near-breakdown in the large-scale, autobiographical tone poems and epic symphonic works of Richard … Continue reading Neoclassicism in the Interwar Period, part 1

World War I left Europe in a state of paralysis, shock and nihilism, arguably leading Europe (and others) into a direct continuation with World War II not long afterward. The unprecedented levels of damage to human life and civilization brought every area of the arts into a new era of divergence, one in which artists … Continue reading Twelve-Tone Serialism in Music

Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) is not only one of my personal favorite composers but also a general favorite of audiences worldwide. Rachmaninoff’s unique place in history, at the culmination of the Romantic period and the dawn of the 20th century, gave him a choice: would he continue in the Romantic tradition, already expounded by his forbearers, … Continue reading Rachmaninoff’s Cinematic Romanticism

Having covered most of continental Europe several times over, it’s time to discuss what was going on in Britain during the romantic period. Britain had an immense colonial presence during the Romantic period of art and music. It was wealthy and at the peak of its international political influence both on the countries it colonized … Continue reading Late Romantic Music from the British Isles

Continuing on our journey from last week, we’ll spend our entry discussing two of France’s most significant contributors to music: Debussy and Ravel. They tend to be lumped together, as I mentioned last week, as “Impressionist” composers despite both of them rejecting the label. They are often mentioned in the same sentence, but they have … Continue reading The Romantic Era in France, part 2

I must admit I have been looking forward to these next few entries for several weeks. Some of my all-time favorite music comes from Romantic-era France. Many music scholars paint a grey but significant line between “German-Style” and “French-Style” music as general categories. Even music from other countries such as Spain, Italy, the Scandinavian countries … Continue reading The Romantic Era in France, part 1

Italy has a unique personality during the mid-and late Romantic period in that its compositional output is strongly associated with one particular genre: opera. Although other genres were present in Italy too, I associate Romantic-era Italy with Rossini, Verdi and Puccini. All of these composers are associated almost exclusively with opera, and they are responsible … Continue reading Italian Opera in the Romantic Period